Monday, April 6, 2015

The Walker operation is leakier than you'd think.On February 15, I wrote:

Walker is said to be about to move into his office/into a new position a trusted agency deputy to oversee an overhaul of the troubled, Walker-created-and-chaired WEDC - - now getting national attention for its failed jobs' agenda and internal chaos - - and its merger with WHEDA.

Also back and rumored, with a twist - - this earlier item about a top corporate and advocacy lobbyist in line for a senior Walker appointment, but perhaps at an agency like the PSC and not the DNR.

Gov. Scott Walker's administration considered giving a top natural resources position this year to a lobbyist for a company proposing a massive iron mine, but backed off because of a federal law barring conflicts of interest.

Records show that Walker's staff was considering Gogebic Taconite lobbyist and spokesman Bob Seitz for the post of deputy secretary of the Department of Natural Resources...

Seitz ended up getting a different appointment from Walker, with the Public Service Commission...

The company, which successfully lobbied for changes in state iron mining laws, funneled $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth. The group helped Walker and Republicans survive recall elections in 2011 and 2012 and helped ensure the Senate had the votes to pass a bill easing mining regulations...

Lake Michigan

Milwaukee River empties into Lake Michigan

Twitter

What water, wetland protection is all about

"A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.